Kevin Durant

[minimus]

The most efficient ISO scorer

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He has also developed playmaking ability and it directly affect his teammates ability to shoot open catch and shoot shots

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[Loaf_of_bread]

Gsw and LAL don't want to see us in the playoffs bc of Rudy. Rudy straight up for durant would be a mistake, let alone any more assets.

What makes you think teams with Curry or Luka are worried about Rudy.

Both teams lack length, particularly gsw. We shouldn't have lost the games against gsw this year... match up particularly well against them imo other than the Jbutler playoff factor. Wolves are 8-4 against the Lakers with rudy. Yes, different dynamic with luka, but rudy and McDaniels defense in the playoffs?

[Mattya]

Gsw and LAL don't want to see us in the playoffs bc of Rudy. Rudy straight up for durant would be a mistake, let alone any more assets.

What makes you think teams with Curry or Luka are worried about Rudy.

Both teams lack length, particularly gsw. We shouldn't have lost the games against gsw this year... match up particularly well against them imo other than the Jbutler playoff factor. Wolves are 8-4 against the Lakers with rudy. Yes, different dynamic with luka, but rudy and McDaniels defense in the playoffs?

Luka had no problem with McDaniels or Gobert guarding him. The real problem is that Gobert can’t punish anyone offensively. Luka then gets an easy night on defense.

[TimberKat]

Here is an alternative to KD trade for those that wants to keep Naz. Dilly+Randle+Conley+DET 1st for LaMelo Ball. He is due 38Mil next year. That should give us enough salary to keep Naz and NAW. Conley comes back as coach?

[Loaf_of_bread]

What makes you think teams with Curry or Luka are worried about Rudy.

Both teams lack length, particularly gsw. We shouldn't have lost the games against gsw this year... match up particularly well against them imo other than the Jbutler playoff factor. Wolves are 8-4 against the Lakers with rudy. Yes, different dynamic with luka, but rudy and McDaniels defense in the playoffs?

Luka had no problem with McDaniels or Gobert guarding him. The real problem is that Gobert can’t punish anyone offensively. Luka then gets an easy night on defense.

Well I'm not talking about specifically guarding luka in the playoffs. Of course it's not rudy.. and who should is interesting/debateable in it's own right, but let's finish strong and get there first.

Lively/gafford beat us even more than luka in that series. Gsw/lal doesn’t have that.

[Mattya]

Both teams lack length, particularly gsw. We shouldn't have lost the games against gsw this year... match up particularly well against them imo other than the Jbutler playoff factor. Wolves are 8-4 against the Lakers with rudy. Yes, different dynamic with luka, but rudy and McDaniels defense in the playoffs?

Luka had no problem with McDaniels or Gobert guarding him. The real problem is that Gobert can’t punish anyone offensively. Luka then gets an easy night on defense.

Well I'm not talking about specifically guarding luka in the playoffs. Of course it's not rudy.. and who should is interesting/debateable in it's own right, but let's finish strong and get there first.

Regardless, with out roster, id rather roll with rudy +naz+jaden+ddv in playoffs.

Over kd -rudy and one of naz/jaden/ddv

Well luckily that isn’t the trade so I’m not sure what that has to do with anything.

[minimus]

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Imagine pairing KD in MIN with McDaniels, Edwards and/or Clarke/NAW

[younggunsmn]

Gsw and LAL don't want to see us in the playoffs bc of Rudy. Rudy straight up for durant would be a mistake, let alone any more assets.

Um Luka Doncic and Dallas spent an entire series destroying us by scheming their offense to switch Rudy onto him and letting Kyrie torch him in drop coverage all game long.
And then they built a defensive scheme centered around not guarding Rudy Gobert that completely shut us down.

I don't want to give up a single long term asset for Durant but if trading for Durant means getting out of Rudy Gobert's contract sign me up!

Our interior defense SUCKS with our current non-Rudy bigs but that problem is fixable in the offseason using much fewer resources than the huge chunk of the cap currently occupied by Rudy Gobert and his bad back.

That is absolutely not what happened in the Dallas series. Their entire offense was schemed around forcing Rudy Gobert come hedge/switch so that they could exploit Naz Reid and Karl-Anthony Towns being completely inept at helping the helper. Rudy did his job, but his teammates were incapable of rotating over to alleviate the roll threat.

I can't disagree more strongly.
Go back and watch the series.

Rudy got torched so badly in game 1 playing drop that we changed up our entire scheme to something we hadn't played all season long to try to counter it, which was a pathetic version of high wall trap and Rudy absolutely DID NOT do his job in containing their guards as they passed over around and through him at will and got into the middle of the floor and their kill spots with ease which is what led to all those easy lob dunks. It could have been Bill Russell playing help defense instead of KAT or Naz, same result, they were in a no win scenario because of the spots Luka and Kyrie were able to get to with ease.

And then their go-to endgame play was to have whomever Rudy Gobert was guarding go set a screen to bait him into a switch, and then have Luka just torture Rudy in ISO. They weren't trying to get him isolated on KAT or Naz Reid. They wanted it to be Rudy.
Think about that.

[minimus]

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I think it is criminally underrated how many playoff games KD has played in his career. He is all-time 7th in playoff scoring, 3rd in playoff average PPG.

[minimus]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44237621/next-kevin-durant-devin-booker-phoenix-suns

As a source close to Ishbia said, "For better or worse, there's no 'trust the process' to Mat Ishbia."

[Guest84]

Not sure how reliable the source is but this article mentions that Jaden was left out of talks but Randle and DDV were considered.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/report-wolves-held-jaden-mcdaniels-out-of-kevin-durant-trade-talks/ar-AA1AWmEh?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=a1b16223d4ad4fe8af6f15d19a1f5d33&ei=25

[winforlose]

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I think it is criminally underrated how many playoff games KD has played in his career. He is all-time 7th in playoff scoring, 3rd in playoff average PPG.

Remove his time in GSW and that number drops a lot. He won’t even make the play in this year. Last year he got swept in round 1. KD might have a huge ceiling, but that is not the same as being worth what he costs. Especially as an expiring, at 37 years old, and being in a position to get almost 60 million from us at age 38 and more than
60 at age 39. Just a terrible idea to trade for him. Let him come here as a free agent the season after next. Let him take the pay cut to be here instead of us gutting our roster to pay him.

[minimus]

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I think it is criminally underrated how many playoff games KD has played in his career. He is all-time 7th in playoff scoring, 3rd in playoff average PPG.

Remove his time in GSW and that number drops a lot

Dude, he did it in OKC from 21 years old age, he won NBA Finals MVP TWICE in GSW, he carried BRO and was one inch away from ECF. What are you talking about?

[Neeva]

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Imagine pairing KD in MIN with McDaniels, Edwards and/or Clarke/NAW

Or lets just trade for Ryan Dunn.. He would add another excellent defender for the wolves.. Probably won’t take much, since Suns benched him even though his defense was amazing with durant and Booker? Imagine how effective he would be with Rudy, Jaden, Naw, Clark.

Ryan Dunn for Miller or Minott and a second?

[winforlose]

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I think it is criminally underrated how many playoff games KD has played in his career. He is all-time 7th in playoff scoring, 3rd in playoff average PPG.

Remove his time in GSW and that number drops a lot

Dude, he did it in OKC from 21 years old age, he won NBA Finals MVP TWICE in GSW, he carried BRO and was one inch away from ECF. What are you talking about?

I was trying to convey that almost 40% of his playoff games happened with GSW. Funny how much easier the game is when you have Curry, Klay, the rest of the dynasty warriors behind you. Since leaving GSW KD had played 12, 4, 11, 4 or 31 playoff games. Since that time he has won 2 series. I don’t think people underrate Durant, but his legacy will always be as Robin to Curry’s Batman. Durant is not and never will be the Jordan or LeBron who lead the way.

[minimus]

Remove his time in GSW and that number drops a lot

Dude, he did it in OKC from 21 years old age, he won NBA Finals MVP TWICE in GSW, he carried BRO and was one inch away from ECF. What are you talking about?

I was trying to convey that almost 40% of his playoff games happened with GSW. Funny how much easier the game is when you have Curry, Klay, the rest of the dynasty warriors behind you.

This is EXACTLY the reason why people underestimate KD. Do his three seasons with Curry worth less? KD - 17 seasons, 170 playoff games. Curry - 17 seasons, 147 playoff games.

Since leaving GSW KD had played 12, 4, 11, 4 or 31 playoff games. Since that time he has won 2 series. I don’t think people underrate Durant, but his legacy will always be as Robin to Curry’s Batman.

Before joining GSW KD played 91 playoff games. Not an Batman? He is all-time 7th in playoff scoring, 3rd in playoff average PPG and NBA Finals MVP TWICE. Also being Robin is not easier, it is different, although it makes me always laugh any Robin / Batman comparison since Towns / Edwards days

Durant is not and never will be the Jordan or LeBron.

This is such a low effort take... I agree Durant will never be Jordan or LeBron. Does it make him a worse player?
LeBron who lead the way... Or LeBron who always wants to play with other superstars, including Doncic?

In my opinion if GM has a chance to bring second superstar who FITS, he needs to take that risk. TC did it with Gobert and it was a right move.

[minimus]

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Imagine pairing KD in MIN with McDaniels, Edwards and/or Clarke/NAW

Or lets just trade for Ryan Dunn.. He would add another excellent defender for the wolves.. Probably won’t take much, since Suns benched him even though his defense was amazing with durant and Booker? Imagine how effective he would be with Rudy, Jaden, Naw, Clark.

Ryan Dunn for Miller or Minott and a second?

Dunn cant hit threes recently. IMO we need to draft such guy or develop such guy. Also my point was that KD needs to play with strong defenders, and at the same time he takes a lot of load in offense from other guys.

[TimberKat]

The more I think about the KD trade, the more I want to go with the LaMelo Ball as first option. We move (Naz or Randle ) + Dilly + DET 1st. As I mentioned before, the PG play is more crucial to us than big man. Ball is 20mil cheaper and sign for long term. Ball+Ant+JMcD+Clark+TSJ is going to be in the playoffs for a long time. Gobert's offensive game will also be better. We still have Naz or Randle. We do need another defensive big in that case. I see the KD as second best option because the money impacted.

[BlacJacMac]

The more I think about the KD trade, the more I want to go with the LaMelo Ball as first option. We move (Naz or Randle ) + Dilly + DET 1st. As I mentioned before, the PG play is more crucial to us than big man. Ball is 20mil cheaper and sign for long term. Ball+Ant+JMcD+Clark+TSJ is going to be in the playoffs for a long time. Gobert's offensive game will also be better. We still have Naz or Randle. We do need another defensive big in that case. I see the KD as second best option because the money impacted.

I don't trust Ball to stay healthy.

2020: 51 Games
2021: 75 Games
2022: 36 Games
2023: 22 Games
2024: 43 Games (He's missed 23 games so far).

I also question how his game is going to translate to a good team. He's very talented, but he really plays for himself. Very good passer, but always goes for the highlight play instead of the simple one. Lives to shoot. I think he'd be a frustrating teammate.

[winforlose]

Dude, he did it in OKC from 21 years old age, he won NBA Finals MVP TWICE in GSW, he carried BRO and was one inch away from ECF. What are you talking about?

I was trying to convey that almost 40% of his playoff games happened with GSW. Funny how much easier the game is when you have Curry, Klay, the rest of the dynasty warriors behind you.

This is EXACTLY the reason why people underestimate KD. Do his three seasons with Curry worth less? KD - 17 seasons, 170 playoff games. Curry - 17 seasons, 147 playoff games.

Since leaving GSW KD had played 12, 4, 11, 4 or 31 playoff games. Since that time he has won 2 series. I don’t think people underrate Durant, but his legacy will always be as Robin to Curry’s Batman.

Before joining GSW KD played 91 playoff games. Not an Batman? He is all-time 7th in playoff scoring, 3rd in playoff average PPG and NBA Finals MVP TWICE. Also being Robin is not easier, it is different, although it makes me always laugh any Robin / Batman comparison since Towns / Edwards days

Durant is not and never will be the Jordan or LeBron.

This is such a low effort take... I agree Durant will never be Jordan or LeBron. Does it make him a worse player?
LeBron who lead the way... Or LeBron who always wants to play with other superstars, including Doncic?

In my opinion if GM has a chance to bring second superstar who FITS, he needs to take that risk. TC did it with Gobert and it was a right move.

Agree to disagree whether Robin has an easier time than Batman. Ask Ant how it feels to have defenses focus on you and try to make the other guy beat you.

Back to the main point of the thread, KD is expiring and 37. Either of these facts by themselves are serious risk factors. You could lose 3-4 good players for a one year KD rental. You could lose 3-4 good players and a ton of money for 2-3 years of KD in decline. You could pay KD around 63 million dollars in his 39 year old season only for him to retire and keep the salary cap hit on the books. A GM’s job is managing risk and reward. Do you really want to incur the KD risks, and what exactly is the reward? Teams with KD don’t automatically win. Teams with KD are not automatically better off than when they acquired him. In a vacuum adding KD probably makes us better. But when you start taking away talent and depth as well as damaging the future we should be building towards (look at how the spurs are building for Wemby, or how OKC built for SGA,) then you lose me.